124 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. 



form no attachments. Red-winged and yellow-headed black 

 birds, and others frequenting marshy places, behold them 

 gradually drained and reclaimed. As our forests are rapidly 

 felled, the very homes of many species are taken from over 

 their heads, exposing them to the weather and their enemies. 

 How heavy is the aggregate destruction by light-houses 

 electric and other lights, which innocently become decoys, 

 The well-nigh'invisible telegraph and telephone lines have 

 hurt more birds in unheeding flight, than the wire fences 

 have injured stock. These natural and uncontrollable cir- 

 cumstances should excite our apprehension and win our 

 pity, but to them must be added barbarous and unnecessary 

 slaughter. 



Game laws, though they protect during certain seasons 

 of year, do not prevent that indiscriminate butchery which 

 often follows the termination of their restrictions. A few 

 years ago, at the robin roost in Kentucky, and at the pigeon 

 roosts in Wisconsin, greedy hunters bagged tens of thous- 

 ands, just for the mere delight of klling, vast quantities of 

 game spoiling on their hands, and utterly wasted. On a 

 smaller scale, this useless sacrifice frequently attends ordin- 

 ary hunting expeditions. The small boy with a gun does 

 not lack cruel intention, but his poorer marksmanship keeps 

 him from committing as much sin. When grains and small 

 fruits are ripening > and birds make an effort to get their 

 share, mistaken farmers bring out their old muskets and 

 blaze away. 



Some thousands of feathered creatures are annually 

 killed to make ornithological museums, and eggs are gath- 

 ered for the same purpose. Law and taxation might wisely 

 regulate this, and restrict collections to those of assured 

 worth and usefulness. Will the undirected, desultory gath- 

 ering of eggs, now fashionable among children, improve 

 their minds more than any other sport? Science, to be 

 worthy of its name, should do nothing inconsiderately. An 

 embryo or a dead bird is only valuable anatomically. Bird 

 nature and bird ways are learned from living specimens. 

 It is asserted that Thoreau never used a gun and never 

 killed a bird. He made his wonderful studies of sentient 



